fat burning exercises could be making you fat

One of the universally accepted keys to weight loss is fat burning  exercises. Like most people I’ve always believed that one of the keys to successful weight loss is to increase the amount of exercise I do.
Despite being told this over and over again, it hasn’t always been consistent with my experience. In fact, at times I’ve lost more weight not exercising at all and recently I read about a university study that partly explained why.

Apparently a Queensland University of Technology study has found that fat burning exercises can increase some people’s craving for high-energy and sugary foods, like chocolate, donuts, biscuits, etc, which in turn prevents them from losing weight.

That’s what exercise does to me.

There is a survival mechanism in all of us called homeostasis. Basically, homeostasis means that our bodies want things to stay as they are. If we do fat burning exercises, our body tells us pretty quickly afterwards that it wants us to replace the energy we’ve just spent (and add a bit extra just in case we’re thinking of exercising again).

I’ve got some more reasons of my own why increased amounts of fat burning exercises doesn’t help some of us lose weight.

The first of those is permission. I don’t know about you, but when I’m doing fat burning  exercises regularly I reward myself, and my favourite reward is food. Ever heard that little voice in your head saying “it’s OK to have another slice of pizza, you’ve been exercising a lot lately, you deserve it”? I have a lot.

Another reason increased exercise doesn’t always show up as a lower number on the bathroom scales is that some exercise increases our muscle mass, which actually increases our weight.
I particularly like weight training and as well as making my muscles bigger and stronger, it also makes my bodyweight heavier.

Another reason many of us, including me, don’t always get the level of weight loss we expect from increased exercise is that we underestimate the amount of exercise we need to do to lose weight, and conversely overestimate the results we’re going to get from the exercise we do.

To lose 1 pound of bodyweight, or ½ kilogram, we need to burn an extra 600 calories or 2500kj per day for a week.   As you’ll see if you visit the Exercise Energy Charts http://fatburningexercises31.blogspot.com/, a 50kg (110lbs) person jogging for 30 minutes burns a little over 200 calories and a 100kg (220lbs) person would burn a little over 400 calories. In other words, if you weigh between 50kg and 100kg and you started jogging for 30 minutes everyday for a week, you wouldn’t even lose 1 pound or ½ kilogram. For most of us that’s a lot of effort for not much gain.

So does this all mean that none of us should be doing lot of fat burning  exercises if we want to lose weight? No. Exercise does help produce good weight loss results for some people (maybe just not me). In addition, exercise does produce a whole lot of other health related benefits, like a healthier heart and lungs, stronger muscles and bones, and it helps prevent or reverse some serious illnesses like diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.

Exercise can also be fun and a great way to enjoy the outdoors and socialise with family and friends. Personally, I still like exercise and I plan to keep on doing it for as long as I am able, even if it doesn’t help me to lose all the weight I want.

Good luck with your weight loss and thanks for visiting http://fatburningexercises31.blogspot.com/